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Court stops PDP from excluding Obaseki in primary election

Jude Egbas

June 23, 2020 8:51 PM

Court grants Obaseki the all clear.

Gov. Godwin Obaseki says he has never seen any ideological difference between the PDP and the APC. (Pulse)

A High Court sitting in Ekpoma, Edo state, has restrained the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from leaving out Governor Godwin Obaseki from its primary election exercise of Thursday, June 25.

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Obaseki's defection to the PDP as he seeks re-election, has not come without its problems.

A Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital, had restrained Obaseki from participating in the primary on the basis that he did not purchase the form within the time-frame stipulated in the party’s time-table.

However, in another suit brought before the High Court in Edo, a certain Felix Irioh prayed that Obaseki be allowed to contest the primary because the PDP granted him a waiver.

In his ruling, Justice J. O. Okeaya-Inneh, declared that: "I find in my humble view that the applicants have satisfied the guidelines for the grant of the orders sought as enjoined in the celebrated landmark case of Kotoye v CBN (1989), 1 NWLR PT. 98, 419 at 441.

“The balance of convenience is in favour of the 1st and 2nd applicants and there is no undue delay in bringing this application. It is in that light that I find merit in this application.”